Foreword

Abstract

This is a book recognising one of the major contributors to educational psychology in Asia. It outlines the seeming paradox about Asian learners who perform so well in international tests of school achievement and collaborative learning – but many in the West shudder at what they see are didactic, top-down teaching methods and an over reliance on memorisation, rote learning, and surface-level thinking. Simple answers to this paradox are often provided, such as the East is collectivist, whereas the West is individualist; the East overuses memory, whereas the West uses deeper learning; the East favours effort, whereas the West favours ability; and so on. This book dispels these false contrasts..